Horace Gray, Brown v. Smart — Opinion of the Court
“ The only provision of the constitution of the United States, now relied on by the plaintiff in error, is the first section of the fourteenth amendment, which forbids any state to deprive any person of property without due process of law. ”
Horace Gray, Brown v. Smart — Opinion of the Court
“ Yet each state, so long as it does not impair the obligation of any contract, has the power by general laws to regulate the conveyance and disposition of all property, personal or real, within its limits and jurisdiction. ”
Horace Gray, Brown v. Smart — Opinion of the Court
“ So long as there is no national bankrupt act, each state has full authority to pass insolvent laws binding persons and property within its jurisdiction, provided it does not impair the obligation of existing contracts; but a state cannot by such a law discharge one of its own citizens from his contracts with citizens of other states, though made after the passage of the law, unless they voluntarily become parties to the proceedings in insolvency. ”
